Kamy Wicoff, Founder, is the founder of She Writes.com. She is the author of the bestselling book I Do But I Don’t: Why The Way We Marry Matters, and co-founder of Salon of Women Writers, an international group with branches in New York, London, and San Francisco. She serves on the board of directors of Girls Write Now, and is a member of the Advisory Council at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research, one of the nation’s most distinguished research organizations devoted to the study of gender, housed at her alma mater, Stanford University. She has appeared on NPR, CBS Sunday Morning, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other major media outlets as an author and publishing industry expert.
Brooke Warner, Publisher, is the founder and president of Warner Coaching Inc., where she specializes in helping writers get published. In her thirteen years in the publishing industry, including seven-and-a-half years as Executive Editor at Seal Press, Brooke shepherded over 500 books through the publication process. Brooke’s expertise is in traditional and new publishing, and she is a champion of all writers committed to making their dream of publishing a book a reality. Brooke’s website recently won an award from the Association of Independent Authors for Best Website for Independent Authors. She co-mentors memoirists in her biannual course, Write Your Memoir in Six Months, and sits on the board of the National Association of Memoir Writers and She Writes.com. She is the author of What’s Your Book? A Step-by-Step Guide to Get You from Inspiration to Published Author (She Writes Press, 2012).
Krissa Lagos, Managing Editor, is a freelance writer and editor with a background in marketing and an English degree from U.C. Berkeley. She spent the past few years working in the traditional publishing world; there, she spent time in both the editorial and marketing spheres, which allowed her the unique experience of participating fully in the two opposing sides of the industry—the creative side and the sales side. She brings her dual sensibility as both an editor and marketer to her work here at She Writes Press.
Caitlyn Levin, Author Liaison, is a graduate from Barnard College with a degree in English Literature and a concentration in creative writing. She has special interest in Young Adult and eats Meg Cabot novels like they’re candy. She has been a contributor and editor for various literary magazines on the Columbia campus and abroad at Oxford, where she spent the entirety of her junior year. During her final year at Barnard, she organized events for the writing community and helped to run the Barnard writer’s blog.
Randy Kuckuck, Head of SWP production, has over 25 years of experience in the book industry. Early in his career he formed Scarborough House out of the assets of Stein & Day Publishers, a major New York publishing house whose 800+ authors included Jack Higgins, E. Howard Hunt, and Elia Kazan. Randy has extensive experience in book printing with BookCrafters and Millennia Graphics. Randy moved into online media information All Media Guide and Muze which provided metadata, reviews, and biographies about music, movies, and books. After the merger of All Media Guide and Muze, Randy has returned to book publishing as the founder of PublishNext.
Kiran Spees, Project Manager, is a lover of all forms of art and creativity. After graduating from Seattle Pacific University with a degree in English literature, she managed a music store for three years then returned to her literary roots. She is the author and illustrator of Punctuation Bestiary, a lighthearted look at punctuation marks, and has two more books in the works. Kiran remains active in the Puget Sound arts scene, most notably by playing oboe in Seattle’s Thalia Symphony.
Trey Schorr, Project Manager, is a wordsmith. Since earning a BA in English from Seattle Pacific University and an Editing Certification from the University of Washington, he has edited professionally, working with the nonprofit Children of the Nations and with marketing and branding agency Creative Fuel Studios. His love of language extends to the stage in singing and acting, and in 2011 he directed his first play—the musical Annie. His first book, Up from the Ashes: The Redemption of a Fallen Saint, is scheduled for publication in September 2012.
Developmental Editors & Coaches
Zetta Brown holds a BA in English/Creative Writing from Southern Methodist University and is the author of several short stories. In 1998 she was the regional first-place winner for The National Society of Arts & Letters (NSAL) Award for Short Fiction. Her work has been published in literary journals produced by Tarrant County College in Hurst, Texas, Mary Hardin-Baylor University in Belton, Texas, and Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. In 1999 and 2000, her stories were adapted for performance at the Craft of Writing conference in Denton, Texas. She has had the honor of obtaining a residency at The Writers’ Colony in Dairy Hollow in 2002 as well as attending the Hurston-Wright Foundation’s Writers Week in 1998. A native Texan, she now lives in Scotland with her husband, author and publisher, Jim Brown. Visit her editing blog, “Zetta’s Desk” at http://zettasdesk.com/who-is-zetta.
Cecelia A. Cancellaro has more than twenty years of publishing experience. She began her career as an editor at Routledge Press and was also an editor at Schocken Books in the Knopf Group at Random House. Most recently she is co-founder of Idea Architects, a creative book development agency that provides a wide variety of publishing related services. Her goal has always been to bring intellectually and politically important work to a wide readership. She has published many award-winning and paradigm-shifting books in a variety of areas close to her heart including memoir, history, feminism, social issues, cultural studies, and race and ethnicity. She is the author of a book about pregnancy and writes frequently on women’s issues. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Maplewood, New Jersey.
Jonathan Danielson earned his Bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University, and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of San Francisco. With a specialty in developmental editing, he has worked for the literary magazine Flatmancrooked, the small-press book publisher Nouvella, and the Kimberley Cameron & Associates Literary Agency. His work has been named a Top 25 Finalist for Glimmer Train’s “Family First” competition, and has been published or is forthcoming in The Southern California Review, Able Muse Press, The Rambler, Fast Forward Press, and The Feathertale Review.
Jill Dearman is the author of Bang the Keys: Four Steps to a Lifelong Writing Practice (Penguin 2009). She is a part-time Professor of Journalism at New York University where she has taught editing and writing to journalists for a decade, and in 2013 will begin teaching a “Bang the Keys” course based on her book at NYU’s School of Continuing Education and Professional Studies. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School. An award-winning fiction writer, her prose has been published in numerous publications including North Atlantic Review, The Portland Review, Lilith, New York Stories, and Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood. As a journalist, she has written for The Writer, New York Daily News, Time Out New York, and other publications. She writes an interview column for Barnes & Noble.com called “Writer to Writer.” Jill runs a thriving editing practice and has edited both fiction and nonfiction for a wide array of clients including journalists from the New York Times, award-winning biographers as well as new novelists and nonfiction writers. Her writing exercise APP is available on iTunes. For more on Jill check out her website and video.
Cori Howard is an award-winning journalist and the editor of Between Interruptions: Thirty Women Tell the Truth about Motherhood, a popular anthology of stories about becoming a mother. She writes regularly on parenting and her stories – almost all memoirs – appear regularly in Today’s Parent magazine, The New York Time’s Motherlode, Literary Mama and many other online publications. She is also the founder of The Momoir Project, an online writing centre that focuses on teaching memoir writing and blog writing for moms. She has taught memoir writing on SheWrites and at several universities in Canada. She has ghostwritten two memoirs and often works one-on-one with other writers on their memoir manuscripts. For more information, please check out: www.themomoirproject.com.
Elizabeth Kracht’s career in publishing took root in Puerto Rico where she completed her BA in English and worked as a copyeditor for an English-language newspaper. When she returned to the mainland she found her “vein of gold” in book publishing. She thrives on working closely with authors and researching the potential market for new books. Elizabeth’s eclectic life experience drives her interests. She appreciates writing that has depth, an introspective voice or that offers wisdom for contemporary living. In fiction, she represents literary, commercial, women’s, thrillers, mysteries, and YA with crossover appeal. She is intrigued by untrustworthy narrators, tragic tales of class and circumstance, and identifies with flawed and quirky yet sterling characters. In nonfiction, she particularly loves voice- or adventure-driven memoir, and other nonfiction projects that contribute to the well-being of the self or others in addition to niche projects that fill holes in the market, offer a fresh approach, or make her laugh. She also has a soft spot for nonfiction heroic pet stories.
Summer Dawn Laurie set her sights on the world of children’s book publishing in 1997 and has never looked back. She started down this path at Chronicle Books for Children, working in both the marketing and editorial departments. In 2000 she crossed the bay to join Tricycle Press, the children’s imprint of Ten Speed Press in Berkeley, California. As Senior Editor, Summer worked on over 50 published books across varied genres—picturebooks, board books, novels, activity books, fiction and non-fiction for young people up to age 12. After seven years she took yet another fork in the road and is now an independent editor, working to strengthen each word her clients write and helping guide them through the often labyrinthine route to publication. Summer is also a children’s specialist at independent bookseller Books Inc. where she has started the Wild Girls Mother-Daughter Book Club. And just for fun, Summer produces the children’s and teen programming for the annual Litquake literary festival and is a prior member of the board of the NCCBA (Northern California Children’s Booksellers’ Association).
Annie Tucker Morgan is an editor and writer with thirteen years of experience in book and magazine publishing. She was the managing editor of Juxtapoz art magazine for seven years and an editor for the women’s lifestyle website DivineCaroline.com, as well as a freelance art and travel writer for San Francisco magazine, Sunset, and LA Weekly. She has edited more than 120 books in a wide range of both fiction and nonfiction genres for such publishers as Seal Press, Counterpoint Press, and the Amazon imprint CreateSpace; select titles include Legacy of Secrecy, The More I Owe You, Full Frontal Feminism, Intimate Politics, Only as Good as Your Word, Women Behind Bars, and A Pocket History of Sex in the Twentieth Century. Annie has a bachelor’s degree in English and American literature from Harvard University and a copyediting certificate from UC Berkeley. She is currently at work on her first novel.
Cami Ostman holds a B.Ed. in English from Western Washington University and an M. S. in Marriage and Family Therapy from Seattle Pacific University. She is the author of Second Wind: One Woman’s Midlife Quest to Run Seven Marathons on Seven Continents, co-editor of Beyond Belief: The Secret Lives of Women in Extreme Religions, a regular contributor to Adventures Northwest and to her own blog, 7marathons7continents.com. Cami is also the founder of Red Wheelbarrow Writers, a community of writers in Western Washington. She is also a blogger for Psychologtoday.com. She has been profiled in Fitness and O magazines. Having spent spent fifteen years as a psychotherapist, now as an editor, Cami specializes in helping authors “figure out what they really have to say.” She is currently working on a novel and on her second memoir.
Nancy Rawlinson is a writer, editor, teacher, and creative coach. She has worked with writers at all stages of their careers for the last nine years. She specializes in developmental feedback, and in helping blocked writers move forward. Nancy runs independent writing workshops in New York and online. As a writer, Nancy has been published in The Guardian, Mosaic Literary Magazine, Guernica, and Poets and Writers magazine (among other places), and awarded residencies and fellowships from the Byrdcliffe Arts Colony, the Ragdale Foundation, Atlantic Center for the Arts, and the Jentel Artist Residency Program. Her website is www.nancyrawlinson.com.
Wylie O’Sullivan spent nine years at Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, where she was a Senior Editor by the time she left. She’s primarily worked on narrative non-fiction—including memoir, social history, current events, social justice, women’s issues, biography, the environment, pop culture, and travel—and fiction. At Free Press she acquired and edited dozens of books, among them Rebecca Traister’s Big Girls Don’t Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women; The Story of Stuff: The Impact of Overconsumption on the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health—And How We Can Make It Better by Annie Leonard; Elyssa East’s Dogtown: Death and Enchantment in a New England Ghost Town; and The Longshot: A Novel by Katie Kitamura.
Miranda C. Spencer, a Preferred Provider for the original She Writes, offers developmental and line editing services to nonfiction authors. She has been involved with book publishing since the early 1980s. After graduating from Bard College with a degree in English Literature, she began her career with Prentice-Hall, first as an editorial assistant for textbook acquisitions and then as an advertising copywriter in the company’s trade division. She also freelanced as a copy editor and proofreader for Prentice Hall, St. Martin’s Press (11 years), and other major houses.
Stephanie Staal has held diverse positions in the publishing industry over the past 20 years, all of which have given her a broad perspective on the writing and publishing process. After working as a literary scout for international publishers and American film producers and studios, she served as editorial consultant to a London-based independent trade publisher, acquiring and developing a list of nonfiction books. She is the author of two books, Reading Women: How the Great Books of Feminism Changed My Life (PublicAffairs, 2011) and The Love They Lost: Living with the Legacy of Our Parents’ Divorce (Delacorte, 2000). Her articles and essays have appeared in such publications as TheWashington Post, Glamour, and Marie Claire. Currently, she is onthe faculty of Gotham Writers Workshop, where she teaches classesin nonfiction writing, book proposal, and creative writing, as wellas mentors individual students. A graduate of Barnard College,Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, and BrooklynLaw School, she lives with her daughter in Brooklyn, New York.
